While I will con­cede that Black­ber­ries have become real smart­phones rather than the uppity pagers of yore, I have to won­der at the thought behind this par­tic­u­lar announcement.

AT&T Rel­e­vant Products/​Services is prepar­ing for a Elec­tion Day sales surge on Nov. 4, when Research In Motion’s Black­Berry Bold will launch at AT&T’s stores nation­wide for $299.

Com­mu­ni­ca­tions — Black­Berry Bold Set for Elec­tion Day Launch

So they’re releas­ing a new prod­uct on the same day as the most impor­tant elec­tion in many of our life­times? Because that won’t be a distraction.

There have been rumors float­ing about for a while that RIM has some seri­ous prob­lems with the Black­berry Bold, among them heat and bat­tery life. Despite the hope­ful, happy tone of this press-​release-​masquerading-​an-​article, I have to seri­ously won­der if RIM/AT&T picked this date in hopes of turn­ing what had been a hotly antic­i­pated launch into a safer, lower-​profile “soft launch” in hopes that any early adopter com­plaints would be lost in the hub­bub around Obama’s elec­tion. And if there really isn’t any­thing wrong with the Bold, why choose to launch it on a day when absolutely no one will be talk­ing about it?